A report by the non-proift Sunlight Foundationsuggests Lehigh Valley Congressman Charlie Dent and future part-Lehigh Valley Congressman Tim Holden were among 15 lawmakers who signed a letter to federal regulators protesting plans to rein in the marketing of junk food to kids while recieving thousands in contributions from the marketers and food producers.

Hershey Foods, manufacturer of the ubiqitous kiss, is headquartered in Pennsyvlania, the report points out. JustBorn, based in Bethlehem, is located in Dent's 15th District.

In the five-paragraph letter to the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (read below), Dent takes aim at Bethlehem, whose mayor was Dent's one-time congressional opponent, for using its Community Development Block Grant, in essence, as a credit card for its operating budget.

An audit (read below), released Sept. 26, notes that Bethlehem used $790,000 from the Community Development Block Grant last year to pay bills, repaying it earlier this year. Bethlehem alerted HUD of the spending.

After the audit came out, Dana Grubb -- a former city employee who once ran Bethlehem's CDBG program -- alerted Dent.

Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski skipped out early from a White House meeting to sit down with U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey Tuesday morning. Meeting face-to-face for the first time in Washington since Toomey became Pennsylvania's freshman senator, Pawlowski had a simple message: Think about municipalities.

Toomey is one of 12 lawmakers tasked with creating a bipartisan deficit reduction plan before the end of the year or else broad spending cuts kick in and everyone feels the pain. Pawlowski argues it would hurt most of all at the local level.

"It would dramatically impact municipalities in a real way. That’s why we’re here" he said in an interview on Capitol Hill. "We want to get that point across to these folks. You better get your act together and figure out how to pull this off – and that’s kind of what we said to Pat Toomey."

Mayors, Democrat or Republican, are nervous that the committee won't pull it off, Pawlowski said. And they feel like they aren't being listened to in a real way.

Pawlowski said Toomey reiterated to him what he has also said publicly, that his main focus as a supercommittee member will be tax cuts and tax reform, but was vague on details. Pawlowski presented to him the idea of an infrastructure tax credit modeled after the 20-year-old low-income housing tax credit program that leverages private investment to build low income housing.

"Listen, I know you’re going to eliminate loopholes, I’m sure you’re still going to have a tax credit for corporations," Pawlowski said he told Toomey. Why not incentivize corporations to invest in roads and bridges, he said. Toomey told Pawlowski he'd take a look at it.

Pawlowski said the cuts at the federal and state level don't take into account that the burden then falls on the local governments. Seniors come to the mayor because their rent has increased but their Social Security checks haven't, and there's little to nothing he can do for them. People are hurting, Pawlowski said, and he sees it firsthand.

"What they do out here does have an impact ... it does have a huge impact on everything from funding additional months of unemployment to what they do with Social Security, it's all going to reflect back on the local level," he said. "We're the ones who have to deal with the ramifications, nobody up here, us at the local level."

As the Senate inches closer to passing a package of free trade agreements, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey is taking a leadership role promoting a federal assistance program for workers and businesses adversely impacted by the agreements. In his role as chairman of the Joint Economic Committee, he released a report Tuesday meant to highlight the importance of the Trade Adjustment Assistance program.

Casey also took to the Senate floor to discuss an amendment he's sponsored to extend the benefits through 2013, which includes access to training for displaced manufacturing workers. The language is based off a compromise Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus, a Democrat from Montana, came to with his House counterpart, Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp, Republican from Michigan.

Casey's JEC report found that slightly more than half of workers helped through the TAA program found employment within the first year after the program. Casey began his push for TAA extension earlier this year. The Morning Call examined the impact on free trade locally in July.

Once a TAA program extension is agreed to, the White House has said it will send three stalled trade agreements with Colombia, Panama and South Korea to Capitol Hill. Congress cannot pass the agreements until it formally receives them from the White House.

"Our action this week will ensure that thousands of American workers will be able to count on retraining and other support if they lose their job through no fault of their own," Casey said in his floor statement. "More and more jobs have been sent overseas, leaving workers out in the cold. Nothing they did has caused outsourcing of their job, and yet they are left with the consequences, and their families suffer with those same consequences.

"To get jobs in new industries, workers need new skills. they need to be retrained and introduced to new skills. Trade adjustment assistance helps those workers hurt by foreign trade back to work while also ensuring the employers have a skilled work force at the same time," he said.

Casey's amendment is expected to come up for a vote as early as Tuesday, but more likely Wednesday.

The White House's plan for deficit reduction, which includes tax increases for the wealthiest Americans, was blasted by the right before Obama had even formally introduced it. But Pennsylvania's U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, a Republican, waited until Obama was done to make clear that for him, a former president of the limited government, free market Club for Growth, the proposal was a non-starter.

In a statement released at 11:21 am, minutes after Obama concluded, Toomey said:

“As a member of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, I welcome President Obama putting some ideas on the table and his overall goal of cutting the federal deficit. It is reassuring to hear that the president recognizes that we have a severe debt problem in this country, and I’m sure that the Select Committee will consider his proposals among many others.

“However, I am concerned that his deficit reduction strategy sometimes seems more defined by political posturing, such as recycling tax hikes that even lawmakers in his own party have publicly opposed. With the Select Committee’s deadline looming, we do not have time to waste on political games and pushing big tax increases that will only make our economy weaker for all Americans. I remain firmly committed to working with my fellow members of the Select Committee to produce a proposal that reduces our deficits and encourages economic growth and job creation.”

Presidential hopeful Rick Santorum may not live in Pennsylvania any more, but he still has friends here.

Calling him the right man for the right time, 15 members of the 30-member Republican caucus in the state Senate have come out in support of Santorum’s long-shot bid for the White House in 2012, including state Sen. Pat Browne, R-Lehigh, Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, R-Jefferson and Senate Appropriations Chairman Jake Corman, R-Centre, whose ties to the GOP presidential hopeful run deep.

“We need people with the courage to solve our problems,” Corman, a former Santorum staffer, said at Capitol news conference on Tuesday, adding that Santorum has the “track record of dealing with the tough issues.”

The endorsement comes at an important time for Santorum, who's been lagging in national polls and fighting for media attention. Pennsylvania Republicans hold their own straw poll during the weekend of Sept. 16. Despite its late primary, the state is still considered a key presidential bellwether.

Asked about the timing of their announcement, the two lawmakers said it had been in the works for several weeks. And "it is important for [Santourm's] friends and those who know him to stand up and say we're for him," Corman said.

In a statement, Santorum, who now lives in Virginia, said he was “honored to have the support of this esteemed group of Pennsylvania leaders – from Tea Party legislators to party leadership, who know firsthand that our campaign has the record of electoral and legislative success in Pennsylvania.”

The two Republican leaders stuck mostly to extolling Santorum's bona fides on the economy, arguing that he "had the guts" to make tough decisions. They stayed away from Santorum's more radioactive stands on social issues such as same-sex marriage and abortion, saying it would be "up to the voters" to evaluate them.

Citing the implosion of former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s campaign and the sudden rise of Texas Gov. Rick Perry, the two lawmakers said they believe that the GOP presidential field is still volatile enough to allow Santorum to rise within its ranks.

In fact, as the field of candidates narrows, the only place for the former Pennsylvania senator’s candidacy to go is “up,” Scarnati told reporters.

Santorum took just 3 percent of the vote in a Aug. 24 Gallup poll of the GOP primary field, finishing well-behind Perry, who led the pack with 29 percent support among primary voters. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney finished second with 17 percent of the vote. The poll included a sample of 1,040 Republicans and Republican leaning independents. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

With Pennsylvania’s primary coming relatively late in the presidential cycle, Republican lawmakers here will most likely serve as cheerleaders and -- more importantly, fundraisers – for Santorum. Scarnati, the Senate’s presiding officer, said that’s a role he’s looking forward to playing.

“I am anxious to put that money to good use,” he said.

In addition to Browne, Corman and Scarnati, the full list of Pennsylvania GOP senators supporting Santorum includes: Sens. Mike Waugh of York County; Bob Robbins of Mercer County; Richard Alloway of Franklin County; David Argall of Schuylkill County; John Eichelberger of Blair County; Mike Folmer of Lebanon County; Bob Mensch of Montgomerry County; John Pippy of Allegheny County; Robert Tomlinson of Bucks County; Kim Ward of Westmoreland County; Don White of Indiana County and Gene Yaw of Lycoming County.

A heated, late-night email tiff between two community leaders became public Tuesday during a committee meeting over how to spread the pain of cuts to a federal grant aimed to help the poor.

While the tiff had been settled hours before the meeting, Councilwoman Karen Dolan described the proposal to the 67 percent cuts to programs run by the Community Action Committee of the Lehigh Valley as "political payback."

Joseph Kelly, city director of community and economic development, objected that that description. He later characterized the email exchange between himself and CACLV executive director Alan Jennings as "hot-headed comments between two friends fighting on the same side." And when cooler heads prevailed Tuesday afternoon, hours before council's committee meeting, the two reached an understanding.

The CACLV did not spend $9,900 of its $15,000 allocation yet this year from the city's Community Development Block Grant, and the city will carry that over next year and give it another $5,000. That will allow the group to maintain it's $15,000 allocation next year, he said.

The city was faced with reappropriating the funds because of a 16.8 percent cut of its $1.6 million CDBG grant.

In an email time-stamped 5:01 p.m. -- an hour before the committee meeting -- Jennings acknowledged he was not aware his group was behind in spending current contracted funds, and the money wasn't spent because his group had a hard time convincing for renters that a bad sellers market is good for buyers.

"It is unfortunate that this situation led to a pitched exchange between two hot-blooded guys trying to make the best of a bad situation," he wrote to Kelly.

This year on Sept. 11, President Obama will attend memorial events in lower Manhattan, Arlington, Virginia and Shanksville, Pa -- the three places where in total more than 3,000 people were killed a decade ago.

From the White House:

On September 11, 2011, the president and Mrs. Obama will join with the rest of the American people in marking the 10th anniversary of a day that we will never forget. The president will participate in commemorations at each of the three locations where we lost so many loved ones -- in lower Manhattan; in Shanksville, Pennsylvania; and at the Pentagon in Northern Virginia.

Throughout the day, he will pay tribute to those we lost, honor the Americans who responded on that day and who served in harm's way over the last decade. He will underscore the strength, resilience and unity of the American people. Further details about the president's schedule will be announced in the coming weeks.

On September 10th, the day prior, the vice president will attend the dedication of the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Further details about the vice president's plans will also be announced in coming weeks.

For U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, the decision to oppose the debt ceiling deal — which allows the nation to continue paying its bills past midnight — was not an easy one.

Toomey said he looked back on how far the debate had shifted in the direction of Republicans concerned about federal spending. They wanted the $14.3 trillion debt increase tied to spending cuts. At first, the White House called for a clean debt increase with no conditions attached. Then President Obama and the Democrats sought a combination of cuts and new revenue.

The debt deal Obama is expected to sign into law this afternoon contains just spending cuts.

“When I look at those things that’s real progress,” Toomey said in an interview Tuesday morning. “I acknowledge you can make a strong argument in support of it.”

The Senate is poised to vote on the last-minute, long-delayed debt deal at noon, and it’s expected to pass without Toomey’s support.

Toomey does not criticize those in his party who do support the deal, but for him, it simply does not go far enough to fix the nation’s economic situation. Because the deal’s cuts are minimal in Toomey’s view, he’s afraid the nation will still face a downgrade from credit agencies. He also fears that future Congresses will not fully comply with the spending cuts outlined in the deal.

Asked about critics who will say he is putting his economic philosophies before the billions of dollars in government programs and pay for federal workers, Toomey reiterated what he’s said all along: The ceiling needs to be raised, but the bigger program facing America is the deficit.

“I still maintain that the most important challenge is not the Aug. 2 debt limit but the underlying problem that got us here and that’s more urgent,” Toomey said.

The deal sets up a so-called “supercommittee” tasked with finding a second set of spending cuts at the end of the year. Toomey said that if asked, he would serve, but that one would probably have to vote in favor of its creation to be considered.

Coming off a bitter partisan struggle over raising the nation's debt limit, 54 percent of Pennsylvanians disapprove of the job Barack Obama is doing overall as president compared to 43 percent who approve. Close to the same number do not believe Obama deserves re-election.

The results are from a Quinnipiac University poll of 1,358 statewide voters released Tuesday morning.

While Obama's approval is low, he does fare better than both political parties. About 2/3 of Pennsylvania voters give Republicans and Democrats each low marks for their job performance.

And if there is any thin silver lining for the president, 44 percent say he handled the debt debate better than the Republicans in Congress while 37 percent say the GOP did.

In the 2012 re-election, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney narrowly beats out Obama 44 percent to 42 percent. And former Pennsylvania U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum comes within the margin of error with Obama beating him 45 percent to 43 percent.

It's important to note that all of these numbers for Obama are much lower than they were when Quinnipiac asked voters these questions in June.

Although they are from the same political party, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, a Democrat facing re-election this year, has more support from Pennsylvania voters than Obama. More voters, 47 percent, would choose Casey compared to 35 percent who could choose the unnamed Republican in the 2012 Senate race. The same amount -- 47 percent -- believe Casey deserves re-election.

Former GOP presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, who this week referred to Tea Party lawmakers as "hobbits," publicly criticized Pennsylvania's Pat Toomey Sunday during an unusual unscripted debate on the Senate floor.

McCain, who appeared to be having a great 'ol time during a back and forth with Democrat Majority Whip Sen. Dick Durbin, referred to Toomey and those who share his views as "terrible."

Durbin brought up Toomey saying, "One of the senators on the floor here from the state of Pennsylvania has come in and said defaulting on the debt is not that big a deal. It can be, quote in his words, easily managed. Does the senator from Arizona agree with that thinking?"

Here's how McCain responded:

"As the senator may know, I came to the floor a couple of days ago and made that comment, and the senator from illinois and I are in agreement, point number one. you can prioritize -- I think the senator and every economist I know literally would agree. You can prioritize for awhile where you want what remaining money is left, but the message you send to the world, not just our markets but to the world, that the United States of America is going to default on its debts is a totally unacceptable scenario and beneath a great nation. We are in agreement. Number one: passage through the United States Senate of a balanced budget amendment to the constitution of the United States, as i said before, is not fair to the American people because, because the terrible obstructionists on this side of the aisle, the terrible people, their flawed philosophical views about the future of america is not going to allow to us get 20 additional votes from your side, assuming that you get all 47 since it requires 67 votes to pass a balanced budget amendment to the constitution. so i think it was not only wrong assessment ... I think it's not fair to the american people to say we can pass a balanced budget amendment to the constitution through the Senate at this time."

Months after U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner publicly sparred over whether the government should or even could prioritize debt payments if Congress couldn't get its act together and raise the debt ceiling, Geithner may be conceding that Toomey was right after all.

With the clock ticking dangerously close to the Aug. 2 default deadline, the Wall Street Journal has an article this morning saying Geithner and Co. are beginning to figure out its payment priorities. Toomey, back in January, penned an editorial in the WSJ, that the federal government could avoid a default on its debt obligations by using available revenue to pay its interest on that debt before all other government spending.

Then, when the debt limit debate seemed a distant problem to this "wait until the last possible moment to deal with any problem" legislative body, Toomey was told by an economist that he was "playing with fire." Geithner wrote in a letter that Toomey's plan was "unworkable" and "quite harmful if enacted."

It's possible that at the time few could have imagined that Congress would let it come to this.

From the WSJ today:

If market turmoil worsens this week, however, the administration could unveil its intentions in the next few days. Treasury is expected to say, among other things, that it would have to scale back debt auctions if the ceiling isn't raised, people familiar with the matter said. But officials wouldn't provide any details of its plans.

The Federal Reserve is expected to play a key role in any plan Treasury might activate, but the central bank has warned it doesn't have special tools to rescue the government. The Fed could instead be relied on to try to calm financial markets by making sure banks have enough cash to keep operating.

Wall Street officials believe Treasury will restructure the way it pays bills so that all bondholders, including foreign governments such as China, are given priority, so that the country doesn't default on its debt obligations-something even Greece has been able to manage.

Terry Belton, global head of fixed-income strategy at J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., said he believed there is "virtually a zero chance" that a bond default will occur, even if the debt ceiling is not raised by Aug. 2.

"The Treasury has other things available to them that are all quite disruptive but are better than missing an interest payment," he said. Paying bondholders before Social Security recipients, for example, would likely spark political outrage and could lead to lawsuits and market disruption, including a potential downgrade of U.S. debt by credit-ratings firms.

Updated: Toomey has sent Geithner a letter responding to the WSJ report, asking the Treasury Secretary to join with him in supporting the legislation that requires debt payments are prioritized.

Prioritizing debt payments as U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey has advocated would be a "fiscal shock" but would not be a default, Standard & Poor's global head of sovereign ratings said in a CNBC interview Tuesday.

David Beers, appearing on the Kudlow Report, was asked what would happen if Congress misses the Aug. 2 deadline to raise the debt limit and uses available revenue to pay interest on the debt and Social Security -- as reported here, Toomey has reintroduced legislation to do just that.

Beers answered:

"Well, first of all, we're rating debt. Right? So it's theoretically possible that for some period of time the government could take that strategy while the negotiations continue. But it's worth remembering what that would mean. It would mean a very sudden fiscal shock that the longer it lasted would filter powerfully through the system because the US has got--running a budget deficit right now of roughly 10 percent of GDP. Suddenly, for a period of time, you'd essentially be running a cash surplus to pay off the debt as it matures. So potentially that would be deeply disruptive to the economy."

Kudlow followed up, asking if it would be a default. Beers said it would not be as long as the government paid its debt obligations. However that would not be a "tenable situation for long," he said.

Last week, S&P put the U.S.on "credit watch negative," which means it could downgrade the nation's AAA rating if Congress doesn't adequately deal with the country's deficit.

Pennsylvania’s U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey stood center stage at a press conference Tuesday morning backed by close to 20 Republican lawmakers from both the Senate and the House to reiterate his months-long demand that the U.S. Treasury promise to pay its debt first.

Toomey unveiled legislation, which has 31 cosponsors in the Senate, that would require that if Congress cannot reach a deal on raising the $14.3 trillion debt limit by the Aug. 2 deadline, then the government would promise to pay its interest on its debt, send out Social Security checks and pay active duty military.

“This administration has persisted in denying that it can or will prioritize payments...,” Toomey said. “These are scare tactics meant to intimidate congressional republicans into voting for the package the administration wants. Frankly it’s irresponsible and it’s dangerous. The administration should not be threatening to make the debt ceiling impasse more destructive than it needs to be.”

Only a few weeks into his new job Toomey penned an editorial in the Wall Street Journal about prioritizing payments. At that time, Congress was narrowly fixated on whether the federal government would shut down — concerns about hitting the debt limit seemed far in the future. Toomey said then, as he maintains now, that even if the ceiling wasn’t immediately raised, there would be enough revenue to at least pay debt obligations and avoid default.

But critics, including Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner – who Toomey publicly sparred with on this issue – say so many other federal government programs – education, transportation, veterans benefits, to name a few -- would have to go under funded.

The government will take in a total of $172.4 billion in revenue in August, but its total outlays exceed $306 billion, so there’s $134 billion in programs that would go unpaid.

Toomey was asked by a reporter what programs would not get paid. Toomey said it’s not specified. After paying the debt obligations and sending out Social Security and military checks, there’d be some money left for some other programs.

Determining what gets paid and what doesn’t, Toomey said, “we’d leave to the discretion of the administration for whatever short period of time this would ensue.”

A version of this legislation was already voted on in the Senate in March, but was voted down along party lines.

Lehigh County chairman Rick Daugherty said he'll challenge Congressman Charlie Dent this year even if Dent's well-funded 2010 opponent, John Callahan, decides to take another shot.

Callahan, mayor of Bethlehem, has been nearly mum on the issue, saying earlier this month that his family is still deciding whether to run for the 15th District seat and not returning calls media calls in response to Daugherty's announcement.

So, is he or isn't he?

We caught up with him yesterday and posed the question.

"I'm very discouraged by the politicians in Washington and their inability to get things done on behalf of the American people," he said. "Charlie's interested in dismantling Medicare and protecting corporate loopholes rather than addressing the serious issues facing this country. He's clearly part of the problem and no longer represents the voters of the 15th and I believe there is truly an opening there and cause to run. And I'm still actively considering it."

Dent has said that he's ready for all challengers and that he is doing important work in Washington to get the country on the "proper fiscal trajectory."

So, does Callahan wants a rematch?

If we're to use 2010 as any benchmark, Callahan's decision could be public any day. Last time around, after months of media speculation, Callahan chose July 25 to make his formal announcement three days after sources leaked his decision.

What followed was 15 months of fundraising for an aggressive campaign in which Callahan lost by 15 points.

But, still, Callahan's response this week left some of us wondering: were those fighting words?

Unwavering from the Republican party line, all of Pennsylvania's GOP congressmen voted together (safety in numbers?) to put strict conditions on raising the nation's $14.3 trillion borrowing limit mere weeks before the White House says the U.S. goes into default. The House passed 234-190 a bill heralded by the right wing of the party dubbed the "Cut, Cap and Balance Act."

The bill - which was largely a symbolic effort - ties raising the debt ceiling to conditions: slicing fiscal 2012 spending by $110 billion, imposing spending caps for the next several years and passing in Congress a balanced budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution to be sent to the states for ratification.

The White House said it would veto it, and the bill has zero chance of passing the Democratic-controlled Senate.

Lehigh Valley's U.S. Rep. Charlie Dent did not release a statement on why he voted for the bill, yet last week in an interview he said he didn't need the debt limit to be tied to a balanced budget amendment. (leadership pressure is a powerful thing). Local area U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta, of the 11th district, also did not put out a statement.

Dent's office at 11 am sent us this statement on his vote:

"To ensure this country starts living within its means, Congress must make difficult decisions about the future of federal spending. Returning spending to pre-stimulus levels and capping it as a percentage of GDP will help restore fiscal sanity in Washington. Additionally, the concept of a balanced budget requirement is certainly not foreign to Pennsylvanians. It is now time for the U.S. Senate to act. It is imperative that a resolution on the debt ceiling be achieved before the August 2nd deadline. Our fragile economy demands leadership and action. The American people, rating agencies and investors want us to do our jobs by putting this country on a sustainable fiscal path while protecting our AAA rating and creating an atmosphere that leads to more jobs."

Republican U.S. Rep. Jim Gerlach, of the 6th district, said he supported the bill because it "charts a responsible course for restoring much-needed fiscal sanity and making everyone in Washington more accountable to families, seniors, small business owners and all taxpayers.”

Democrat U.S. Rep. Tim Holden, of the 17th district, who has been known to play hopscotch over the party line from time to time, voted against the measure, saying in a statement that while he supports reining in spending, the bill itself was "unreasonable and impractical."

“I opposed the Cut, Cap, and Balance Act of 2011 because it is time Congress stops with the political theatre and gets to work on behalf of the American people," Holden said. "With two weeks remaining for the United States to make good on our fiscal obligations, requiring the passage of a Balanced Budget Amendment before raising the nation’s debt limit is both unrealistic and irresponsible.”

The vote was fairly meaningless, other than getting lawmakers on the record, because as it happened late Tuesday evening a bipartisan group of senators were making headway on a deal to cut spending by almost $4 trillion over 10 years while also lifting the ceiling that seems to have the support of the White House.

Philadelphia Eagles QB and reformed dog fighting fan, Michael Vick, is headlining a press conference on Capitol Hill Tuesday morning in support of legislation that cracks down on people who support and watch animal fighting.

At the presser, Vick will stand side-by-side with the Humane Society, a group he's worked closely with since getting out of prison in 2009 for running illegal dog fighting rings. The head of the Humane Society spoke to ESPN just as Vick was being released from prison about his working with the organization.

"If he's sincere about it and in it for the long haul, then he can be an agent for change. If he's not sincere about it, it's a failing of his, not of ours. He needs to prove himself to us and the rest of the country. We're just giving him better platforms to prove himself. We're about the business of change. Michael has a real opportunity here," Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of the Humane Society told ESPN in 2009.

The legislation Vick will be backing makes it a crime to attend and/or bring children under 18 to a dog fighting event. The bill text says the penalty will be a fine, jail for not more than 1 year, or both, for each violation.

Vick's appearance on Capitol Hill will be at 10:30 a.m. in the House Judiciary Committee room. We hope to get in at least one question about the Eagles offensive strategy (and maybe an autograph for Dad?)

Pennsylvania's Pat Toomey was the guest host on CNBC's Squawk Box. Here's the Republican senator going head-to-head (literally) with former presidential candidate Howard Dean. It gets fun around the 5 minute mark. Also, for a look at Toomey's role in the ongoing debt limit debate, read the Inky's Sunday profile.

Republican Pat Toomey took to the Senate floor Thursday and defended what he said was a mischaracterization of his words by New York Democrat Chuck Schumer.

Here's what Toomey had to say:

And by the way, a brief aside if I could about this debt limit issue because we had a discussion today in the Banking Committee. The Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke was there to testify, and it was a useful discussion. Unfortunately, after I left the committee, I learned later that Sen. Schumer began to discuss some of my remarks with Chairman Bernanke. And in the process, he grossly mischaracterized what I said.

Now, I'm quite sure that Sen. Schumer would never intentionally mischaracterize the remarks of one of his colleagues. So what I'd like to do is just clarify what was actually said so that in the future it won't be mischaracterized. I had observed that the Treasury will have more than enough cash coming in in the form of tax receipts to pay the interest on our debt in the event that we didn't raise the debt ceiling on Aug. 2. I immediately went on to say, and I will now quote myself, if you will allow. I said I don't know of anybody that suggests that we can or should go indefinitely without raising the debt ceiling. And I have argued that we would certainly be much better off reaching an agreement and raising the debt ceiling prior to Aug. 2. End quote. That was characterized by Senator Schumer as follows – and I will quote him. He said, ‘For a smart guy’ – he was referring to me, believe it or not, ‘to say we can pay the obligations, and not pay the rest, that’s just fine. Wow, I'm sort of surprised at it.’

Well, obviously, I never said it was just fine. What I have said is that we’ve got a dire crisis on our hands and we need to do something about it, and I don’t know that we're going to get another opportunity than the opportunity over this question of whether and when and by how much we'll raise the debt limit. But I’m not going to sit by idly and I'm not going to go along with some deal that raises the debt limit without making the real cuts in spending we need and the real process reform.

Last night we attended the annual Pennsylvania senators softball game, a tradition that dates back at least as far as Arlen Specter v. Rick Santorum. Pat Toomey's team, Hit It, Toomey, (insert debt ceiling joke here) squeezed out a 14-13 win in the final inning after being several runs behind Bob Casey's squad, Scrantonicity, for most of the game.

At Casey's first at bat, with Toomey standing at the ready in the outfield, the Republican called out that if Casey struck out he'd have to sign on as a cosponsor to a bill of Toomey's choice. Casey got a hit, but was tagged out at first. As one of Casey's staffers rounded third she turned to a Toomey opponent and said, "When we played Specter, we weren't allowed to get him out. Seriously."

Later, I assured Casey it wouldn't have mattered if he'd had to sign on to Toomey's bill since the Senate isn't going to pass anything this year anyway. Instead, I suggested to the duo that Casey sign the cut, cap and balance pledge if he lost and Toomey agree to raise the debt limit with no conditions if he did, but neither seemed open to such a wager.

After the game, I spoke to them together and captured part of our chat on video. I apologize for the grainy, poor quality of the film. I asked them what inning we're in with the debt ceiling talks and their answer shows just how far apart the Democrats and Republicans really are...

The Republican National Committee has launched a new [mostly web] ad aimed at reminding voters in four blue-trending swing states--including Pennsylvania--that President Obama has not returned the economy to prosperity.

It's more evidence the GOP thinks it can reverse the trend of five Democratic presidential victories in Pennsylvania in 2012, an outcome that would be disastrous for Obama's re-election chances. The ad is also targeted at voters in New Hampshire, Michigan and Wisconsin.

“Republicans are serious about Pennsylvania," said RNC chairman Reince Priebus. "We are serious about competing for Pennsylvania. We think that Pennsylvania will be red in 2012. I think [Obama] is going to be in big trouble in Pennsylvania and I expect us to win there in 2012. It is a big prize, it is 20 electoral votes.”

Obama will perform so badly in Pennsylvania, Priebus predicted, that he will drag down-ticket candidates like Sen. Bob Casey Jr., who the party is still looking for someone to challenge, "into the toilet." Now that's some trash talk.

Preibus pooh-poohed the GOP's failure to find a strong Casey challenger, saying a strong candidate can win a statewide race no matter when he gets into fray.

“I think this fascination with getting fields set so early is something I just am not concerned with," Priebus said. "We are going to have a candidate and the president is going to drag the democrats all the way down.”

The Senate gave up its vacation to stay in Washington to work. We did not.

As Congress continues its tug-of-war over whether the $14.3 trillion debt limit will be raised, Pennsylvania Ave. will be mostly dark for the week. For your PA-related DC nuggets, I urge you to check out the blog from our neighbors to the west, Early Returns. Read it here.

On this here Fourth of July, I wanted to thank all our readers. The characters who run our country can be confusing and frustrating at times, and the problems our country faces are perhaps the greatest in our nation's history. But if the past is any sign of the future, America is going to figure it out.

As it does, we'll continue bringing you tidbits and observations from inside Washington.

As the U.S. House members relax at home before the July 4 holiday, the U.S. Senate is still hard at work doing whatever it is that the Senate does (stall?). Pennsylvania's Sens. Pat Toomey and Bob Casey have been trying to keep themselves busy, and even Lehigh Valley's Rep. Charlie Dent made news without even being in Washington.

Here's a little midweek update:

To start, Dent is taking the place of former Delaware Rep. Mike Castle (who lost his primary bid for the Senate to "I'm not a witch" Christine O'Donnell) as the lead Republican co-sponsor on legislation to allow federal funding for stem cell medical research. This isn't going to be very popular with the social conservatives of the 15th district, but the district leans Democrat and Dent has succeeded there by hugging the political center.

On Wednesday morning, Toomey scored a mini legislative victory when his colleagues supported his call for maintaining some congressional oversight of the IMF, voting for an amendment he wrote to keep in place the Senate confirmation process for the positions of governor and alternate governor of the IMF and International Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

Also this week, Toomey introduced a bill to cap federal spending in six categories: non-defense discretionary, defense, Social Security, Medicare, mandatory veterans and other mandatory spending. His bill, which is not going to pass a Democratically-controlled Senate, comes on the heels of some Republicans signing a pledge last week that they will not support raising the debt limit without a promise to cut spending, cap spending and balance the budget.

Finally, Casey, just as the Obama administration announced Tuesday night that it had reached an agreement with congressional leaders on free trade deals with Panama, South Korea and Colombia, introduced legislation to extend the assistance for workers displaced by trade. The deal on assistance by the White House is insufficient in Casey's view, and he believes the aid should be voted on as a stand alone measure instead of as part of a larger trade package.